A/N: Wow! The response for the first chapter was really great! How exciting! I'm glad you guys are intersted and I promise you it will get better as the story goes on. One thing, can someone PM me about L's real name because I'm a little confused about it and a little clarity would be nice. Thanks!

Well anyway, here's the next chapter! Noah and L meet! Please review!

Chapter 2: Panda

Miya cursed as she rushed into the classroom. She had accidentally slept in after a late shift the night before, and so had to hurry that morning to get herself ready as well as to get Noah to day care. She ended up missing her first class of the day and was sure she was going to be late for Health Concepts.

After practically running across the entire campus, Miya was relieved when the building finally came into view, and she slowed her pace so she wouldn't look a mess when she walked in.

"Hello again, Miss Yamaguchi," Miya heard from behind her. She turned around to see Hideki Ryuga heading in the same direction.

Miya smiled. "Hey Ryuga." She slowed down enough to where she was walking alongside him. "Was everything okay?"

Ryuga looked at her curiously but didn't say anything. Miya realized she wasn't making much sense and so started to elaborate.

"Well you left the restaurant in such a hurry and I haven't seen you in a few days. A heart attack, right? Was that person okay?"

"Yes," Ryuga replied. He stuffed his hands in his pocket and stared straight ahead. "It was brought on by stress, but everything is okay now." Miya nodded, relived to hear Kira hadn't claimed yet another victim. They reached the door of their classroom and stepped inside, thankfully on time.

"Well that's good. I guess a heart attack is a legitimate reason to skip out on the bill," Miya said smartly. Before Ryuga could reply, she left his side to sit on the opposite end of the classroom. Ryuga stared after her for a few seconds before taking his seat next to Light.

Miya willed herself not to look back at him as the rest of the students filled the room. She regretted letting that heartless comment slip from her mouth, but she was still annoyed. She got into huge trouble that night thanks to her fleeing customers and she was starting to resent Ryuga for it.

Before she could dwell on the situation anymore, the professor walked into the room and turned to face the class. He just looked like he had something in store for the poor students, and Miya suddenly wished she hadn't come to school at all that day.

"Well class, we're still discussing social wellness and I have a new exercise for you!" the professor began. There was some groaning throughout the class, and Miya was definitely included in that group. The last thing she wanted to do was spend more time with Ryuga, but the professor seemed dead set on making that fear a reality. "Today, with the same partners you had from last time, I want you to work on social wellness off campus. I don't care where you go as long as you are not on school grounds. You can carry out this assignment sometime today, and I expect a full report next class. Now, if everyone would turn to page fifty-six."

Miya grumbled. This day was just getting better and better.

For their project, Miya agreed to go with Ryuga to get some ice cream. He seemed really keen on the idea, probably for the pure fact that he was getting ice cream out of it since he loved sweets. Miya really wasn't looking forward to it. Even though it was an assignment, it still had the feel of a date to it and that was something Miya didn't really want.

Another problem was that Miya had to take Noah with her. Both her parents were working late and couldn't watch him, not that she wanted to dump him on them in the first place. It was just that she wasn't sure she wanted her son to meet Ryuga. But Noah was excited about the ice cream and so Miya decided they would just have to make the best of the situation.

As she brushed her long, light brown hair into a ponytail, she contemplated her sudden dislike for Ryuga. She really had no reason to dislike him in the first place. He seemed friendly enough, if not a little eccentric. It was probably more annoyance than anything. Not only did he not pay the bill last night, but he was also going against the whole point of this Health Concepts project. They were supposed to be getting to know each other but Miya still felt like she knew next to nothing about Ryuga. Other than his love for sweets, he was a complete mystery and that was frustrating her more than anything.

"Are we gon' get ice cweam now?" Noah asked excitedly, running into Miya's room. He jumped on her bed and looked at her expectantly.

"Yup," Miya replied with a smile. "Let's go." The two left the house and rode the bus downtown to the designated ice cream shop. It was a quaint little store with small tables outside and inside, and a colorful sign that promised delicious ice cream to customers. Hopefully this visit would be as pleasant as that cheerful little sign.

As Miya and Noah entered, she saw that Ryuga was already there. He was sitting patiently in that odd gargoyle position, staring off blankly. There was no ice cream in front of him and Miya assumed he was waiting for her.

"Hey Ryuga," Miya said politely as she approached the table. "Sorry we're late. I hope you haven't been waiting long."

"No, I just got here as well," he replied, snapping into reality at the sound of his name. He then eyed Noah, unsure of what to make of him. The little boy took one glance at Ryuga, with his dark eyes and un kept appearance, and decided to hide behind his mother.

Miya looked down at him and chuckled slightly before turning back to Ryuga. "This is my son, Noah."

Ryuga was surprised, that much was evident from the wide eyed expression on his face, but Miya had been expecting this. That look was on the face of every person who found out she had a son, and she was used to it by now.

"Noah, this is a friend of mine, Hideki Ryuga." Miya said warmly to her son. Noah didn't seem to want to look back at the strange man in front of him, and instead stayed safely hidden. She gave Ryuga an apologetic look and proceeded to move to the counter, gently picking Noah up as she went. "Which flavor do you want sweetie?"

He excitedly chose chocolate, momentarily forgetting his fear, while Miya chose strawberry. After they ordered, they sat back at the table and waited patiently for Ryuga to choose his desert. Both Yamaguchi's were surprised to see the amount of ice cream he had when he returned to his seat. He had ordered a waffle cone, but it was stacked considerably high with many different flavors.

"That's a lot," Noah said in awe, speaking for the first time since he met Ryuga. Apparently all it took to break through the silence was a load of ice cream.

"Sugar is good for the brain," Ryuga explained simply. He dug into the ice cream with vigor, almost forgetting that Miya and Noah were there. "It helps me think clearly."

"Mommy, I wanna think cleawly too!" Noah said turning to Miya. "Then I can be a gweat detective! I need mo suga'!"

Ryuga stopped mid-bite. "Does everyone in your family want to be a detective, Miss Yamaguchi?"

Miya shook her head with a slight laugh. "He started watching the children's movie, The Great Mouse Detective, and ever since then, he's wanted to be a detective."

Noah nodded enthusiastically. "I wanna be like Basil! Or like that man L! He's good too!" Noah then dug back into his chocolate, getting it all over his face in the process.

Ryuga couldn't help but think how interesting the both of them were as he watched Miya wipe Noah's mouth with a napkin. They both seemed to like detective work…and L. Maybe meeting with them wasn't as pointless as he had originally assumed.

"Miss Yamaguchi," Ryuga started, "regarding the other day, did you happen to hear anything Light and I were discussing at the table?" That caught Miya off guard, but she quickly tried to cover her surprise. She didn't want to give herself away, but she couldn't help but wonder if she was really that obvious when she was eavesdropping? If that was the case, she knew now not to consider a career in espionage.

"When I was waitressing?" Miya said nonchalantly. "No, I wasn't listening. Besides, I had other customers to serve."

"I see," Ryuga said, taking another bite of his ice cream. "Well, I would like to test your deductive ability, if that's alright. I managed to get my hands on some Kira related information, and since you want to be a detective, I figured this could help."

Miya raised an eyebrow. How odd. She shrugged and decided to accept his challenge. He pulled out three pictures of letters from Kira's victims, and Miya immediately recognized them as the pictures Ryuga had had Light take a look at. Miya instantly realized she'd gotten herself caught in a trap, and a complicated one at that. Miya was never good at lying, and this would surely require some bluffing if she didn't want Ryuga to know she'd been snooping. She really wasn't sure what to do. If she answered the puzzle correctly, since she did know the answer from the other day, would he conclude that she had been eavesdropping? He would call her out on it and that would be embarrassing, not to mention he might get mad. If she didn't solve it correctly, though, he would probably think she was stupid and not good enough to be a detective. That didn't exactly sound great either.

During Miya's internal argument with herself, Noah had finished his ice cream and began eyeing Ryuga's amount of sweets enviously. He knew that he wasn't allowed to have that much, but that didn't stop him from wanting to steal it from Ryuga. Soon, however, he grew tired of staring at the forbidden desert, and his eyes wandered up to the stranger. Noah saw that Ryuga was staring unblinkingly at his mom and it started to remind him of something.

Ryuga felt the weight of Noah's stare and so broke his gaze from Miya to look down at the small boy, who's bright green eyes were looking back at him curiously.

"Yes?" Ryuga asked confused as to why this child was eying him like that.

"You look like a panda," Noah said bluntly, revealing his thoughts. Ryuga was taken aback, as he'd never actually been compared to an animal before. He'd been called odd, strange, eccentric, different, and unique, but Panda was definitely a new one. "I have a stuffed panda at home," Noah continued. "His name is Panda!" The black haired man didn't say anything and instead.

"Does yo' tummy eva hurt from all the sweets?" Noah asked innocently.

"No, they just help me think easier," Ryuga replied. "In fact I find sometimes that vegetables cause more of a stomach ache."

"Yeah that's what I try to tell mommy but she say no," Noah giggled. "Hey do you wanna be a detective Mr. Panda?" Mr. Panda…well, that was apparently Ryuga's new name.

Ryuga couldn't help but think how talkative this little boy was. He couldn't remember asking these many random questions when he was his age, not that he was ever considered to be a normal boy anyway. He wanted to be annoyed at Noah for distracting him in testing Miya, but he actually found himself to be fascinated by the little boy. It wasn't like he had kids around him too often, and it was intriguing hearing his opinion on ordinary things. Ryuga had to admit it was a nice change.

"Yes I do," he replied. "I wanna be the one to bring Kira down." Perhaps not the most kid friendly conversation, but Noah nodded anyway as if he understood.

"I don't like Kiwa. He's bad."

"Yes he is." Ryuga agreed, turning back to Miya who suddenly had a guilty look on her face.

"Ok I can't lie," she admitted. "I eavesdropped on your conversation so I know what this is about. You put these pictures together and the beginning letters of each line read, 'L, do you know gods of death love apples?' So you caught me."

"I thought so."

"I'm sorry!" Miya apologized quickly. "I was curious! If you were in my position you would have been curious too!"

"Yes it is human nature, but I probably wouldn't have been as obvious," Ryuga retorted.

Miya crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at him. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it immediately, suddenly remembering Noah was sitting right next to her. Best not to say anything rude her son might pick up on.

"What was that, Miss Yamaguchi?" Ryuga asked with a straight face, although Miya was sure he was making fun of her.

She decided she should just bite her tongue. "Nothing…"

The three continued to eat casually, moving on to various topics of conversation. Miya decided somewhere during that time that he wasn't as annoying as she had thought, the she still wasn't sure what to make of him. Once Ryuga had finished all his ice cream, he excused himself, saying he had lots of work to do and that it was nice seeing her again and meeting Noah. The Yamaguchi's watched as he left the small ice cream shop, stuffing his hands in his pockets after pushing through the door.

"He kinda weird," Noah told Miya with a giggle.

She nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he is. But it's not very nice to call people that."

"Sowy Mommy!" Noah apologized quickly as the two got up from the booth, ready to head home.

A few days later, Miya was sitting in her parents' living room watching The Great Mouse Detective as Noah sat on her lap, cuddling with his stuffed panda. Her parents were out late again so she and Noah had the place to themselves.

"I don't like Rat'gan," Noah commented, watching as the evil rat started singing a song about how he was the greatest criminal mind. "He's evil, like Kiwa."

Miya began to nod, but before she could actually respond, the telephone started ringing. She placed Noah on the couch next to her and went to pick it up. "Hello?"

"Miya, you hafta change the channel to Sakura TV now!" It was her next door neighbor calling and she sounded frantic and nervous. "It's Kira!"

"What?" Miya asked in shock. She quickly hung up the phone and raced to the TV, turning off the movie. "Noah, sweetie, can you go upstairs and play with your toys real quick? I promise we can watch the movie after the news, ok? This is really important."

Noah sighed before getting up from the couch. "Ok…" he said, dragging his feet. "I never get to see the bad guy stuff…"

Miya ignored him and changed the channel just in time. Three anchors from Sakura TV were discussing Kira, and Miya settled herself on the couch again, preparing herself for whatever it was they were going to say.

"I assure you this is not a hoax and that Sakura TV is not airing this tape for the purpose of sensationalism," one anchor said. Miya was starting to get nervous. What was going on? "Four days ago, our program director here at Sakura TV received four tapes. After a thorough examination, there can be no doubt that these are from Kira himself. The first tape we received contained a prediction regarding the time of death of two suspected criminals who've recently been arrested. And as predicted, at the exact time that Kira had specified, both men died suddenly of heart attacks yesterday."

'Suspected criminals?' Miya asked herself. 'I though Kira only went after hard-core criminals. Not those that might actually be innocent…'

"Kira has instructed us to air the second tape today at exactly 5:59 pm and we do intend to comply with his demands. This tape should offer proof of his power by predicting yet another death. Beyond that, we understand that it contains a message to all the people of the world from Kira. And now, the video.

Miya gulped, unsure of what to expect. Suddenly, the screen went white and the words "Kira" appeared, spelled out in cursive writing. It was silent for a moment before a distorted voice cleared its throat and began speaking.

"I am Kira," it announced. Miya couldn't help but think how scary the whole situation was. Was Kira really talking to the world? And in that creepy voice? "If this video was being aired on April 18th at exactly 5:59 pm as I requested, the time now is 5:59:47, 48, 49," the supposed Kira counted down before continuing with instructions. "Please change the channel. The news anchor will die of a heart attack at exactly 6:00."

Miya paused. Would the anchor really die? She then changed the channel as fast as she could to the one Kira instructed and saw that the anchor had indeed died of a heart attack. There were many people from the TV station surrounding the man, frantically trying to find out what was wrong with him. Miya shuddered and was glad she sent Noah upstairs.
She flipped back to Sakura TV and realized that she had missed some of what Kira was saying.

"I will present you with another target," Kira continued. "My next victim is an NHN TV commentator and was scheduled to appear in a live broadcast. He too has dared to defy Kira."

Miya changed the TV to the channel and was surprised to see that the commentator had, in fact, died as well. 'Kira's resorting to kill innocent people now?' Miya thought bitterly as she flipped the station back to Sakura TV.

"Now that you have seen proof of my powers, you should no trouble believing that I am Kira. People of the world, please listen to me. The last thing I want to do is kill the innocent. I hate evil and love justice. I've always thought of the police as allies, not as enemies."

'Yeah right," Miya thought as the supposed Kira finished his rant.

"I intend to create a new world. A perfect world that is free from evil. If you were to join
me in my mission, I know it can happen. And as long as no one tried to catch me, I promise that the innocent will not die. Even if you don't agree with me, all I ask is that you don't publicize your views to the media. If you can do that, you will be spared. All you have to do now is be patient. I will create a better world that we can all enjoy. Say goodbye to the world as you know it. Soon we'll have a new world rid of malevolence and inhabited by good, honest people. Try to imagine it."

Miya rolled her eyes. This guy really needed to be stopped. Who was he to decide who was good and honest and who wasn't?

Unexpectedly, she heard a loud thud coming from upstairs. She knew there was no one up there but Noah, and that thud really didn't sound good. She jumped up from the couch in a panic and raced up the stairs as fast as she could to make sure her son was okay. She burst into the room the noise had come from to find Noah sprawled on the floor. His eyes were closed and he was lying on his back among a pile of books that had fallen from the bookshelf in Miya's bedroom.

"Noah!?" Miya cried out, her mind instantly going to the worst place. Could Kira have gotten to him too? For what reason? Her heart pounded against her chest as she rushed to his body. She almost burst into tears until Noah opened his eyes, seemingly fine, though he looked a little dazed.

"Ow…" he mumbled. "That huwt…" Miya stopped breathing as she stared at Noah, confused. Her emotions instantly switched from almost bursting into tears out of fear to almost crying in relief.

"Don't scare me like that again!" she scolded. "What were you trying to do anyway?"

"I wanted a book," he said flatly, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Miya helped him stand back up an dusted him off, checking to make sure he didn't have any visible bruises.

"You're okay?" she asked as Noah as he reached for one of the fallen books.

"I'm good," Noah answered simply, opening it up to reveal an array of colorful pictures. Then the phone rang again, and Miya groaned. "Be careful," she warned Noah seriously before running to get the phone again. She reached out a shaky hand and picked it up.

"Yes?"

"Miya!" It was her neighbor again, somehow managing to sense that she wasn't watching. "Change it to the news hurry! Kira is on a roll tonight!"

Miya furrowed her eyebrows as she changed the station. It really was Kira's night; that much was obvious from the amount of coverage he was getting.

"As you can see, someone has just collapsed outside the doors. Again, we're coming to you live from the Sakura TV building." On the screen, there was in fact a person lying dead outside of the building as the announcer spoke.

'How horrible,' Miya thought, her stomach twisting into a knot. 'Kira really needs to be stopped…although his actions seem different. Kira must have gotten bored with the big-time criminals…unless it's a completely different person.' Miya couldn't stop the thoughts from coming as she changed the station back to Sakura TV to see that Kira was still going on.

"I am now awaiting a response from the police. They must decide if they are going to help me create a better world for all of us. Please announce your decision on the six o'clock news in four days. I have prepared two videos, one to be aired if the answer is yes and another if the answer is no."

Miya turned off the TV in disgust. She suddenly found herself wondering if Ryuga was watching and what his thoughts on the situation were. Would he come to same conclusion she did?